This invention relates to the production of conductive organic polymers. More particularly, it relates to processable conductive organic polymers and to a method for their production.
Considerable effort has been expended by researchers toward the production of polymers which exhibit electrical conductivity. Various approaches to the creation of such materials are described, for example, by J. Frommer, in "Polymer research frontier: How insulators become conductors", Industrial Chemical News, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1983.
Polymeric materials which have been proposed as conductive polymers, for the most part, are characterized by instability under ambient conditions, poor physical integrity (notably brittleness) or poor processability (insolubility or intractability) severely limiting the production or fabrication of conductive polymeric articles by conventional production or processing techniques.
While various applications for conductive polymers have been proposed, for example, in the manufacture of solar cells and batteries and for EMI shielding, the physical properties and/or processability of a conductive polymeric material will dictate in part the suitability of such material to a particular application. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that a need exists for a polymeric material which exhibits electrical conductivity but which also exhibits improved processability.